U.S. Eases Embargo on Arms to Vietnam

WASHINGTON — The United States on Thursday partially lifted its longtime ban on the provision of lethal arms to Vietnam, a move that is intended to help Hanoi strengthen its maritime security as it contends with a more assertive China.

The policy shift was announced as Vietnam’s foreign minister, Pham Binh Minh, met here with Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, and Secretary of State John Kerry.

The State Department emphasized that the policy change applied only to maritime surveillance and “security-related” systems and asserted that the decision reflected modest improvements in Vietnam’s human rights record.

Human rights groups sharply criticized the decision. “Vietnam has hardly earned this reward,” said John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. “Vietnam’s record on political prisoners is bad and getting worse.”

As the United States’ concerns have grown over China’s increasing military abilities, American officials have gradually moved to strengthen security ties with the Vietnamese. Hanoi, whose forces clashed with China in 1979, has been increasingly worried about Beijing’s military posture in the region and has urged that the ban on lethal arms sales be rescinded.

Vietnam’s anxieties were aggravated in May when a Chinese oil rig was temporarily deployed in the South China Sea off the Paracel Islands, which are claimed by both China and Vietnam.

The United States decided to allow the sale of some nonlethal equipment to Vietnam in 2007. Last December, on a visit to Vietnam, Mr. Kerry announced that Washington would provide $18 million in assistance, including five unarmed patrol boats for the Vietnamese Coast Guard.

The latest shift in United States policy, which comes nearly four decades after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, is aimed at further strengthening Vietnam’s Coast Guard and would open the door for Vietnam to acquire armed boats or even surveillance planes from the United States.

Some leading lawmakers have supported the move. Last month, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, introduced a resolution that called for easing the ban on the sale of lethal arms “for maritime and coastal defense.”

The measure was also backed by Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, who has long been a champion of human rights. But the resolution also emphasized that a broader lifting of the prohibition on lethal arms would require Vietnam to take significant steps to improve human rights, “including releases of prisoners of conscience and legal reforms.”

The State Department’s annual report on human rights for 2013 said that Vietnam had continued to impose “severe government restrictions on citizens’ political rights, particularly their right to change their government,” among other abuses.

Obama administration officials have argued that Vietnam’s desire for expanded trade, interest in closer relations with Washington and internal pressures at home may lead to an improved human rights record. By allowing the transfer of lethal maritime equipment, they say, the United States, without forfeiting its leverage, has rewarded Vietnam for taking steps like the signing of an international convention against torture, the release of a few political prisoners and a start at reform of its criminal code.

In a statement on Thursday, the White House said that in her meeting with Mr. Minh, Ms. Rice had highlighted the United States’ desire to deepen military cooperation while stressing the importance of “continued progress” on human rights.

But Mr. Sifton argued that the administration’s strategy would backfire by encouraging Vietnam to draw the conclusion that the United States would continue to seek better ties regardless of whether fundamental human rights reforms were made. And he predicted the decision on Thursday would face significant opposition in Congress.

“It would be a mistake to say that Congress has signed off on this,” he said. “Lots of members of Congress did not know this was cooking.”

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